Our house is full of guests for the week, and I am feeding 20 plus hungry people. Guess what we made this evening?
Crusty Pizza Dough
- 1 package active dry yeast (I buy this in bulk at Sam’s/Cosco…1 Tb=1 package)
- 1 cup warm water -105 degrees F to 115 degrees (I have never taken the water’s temperature. Stick your finger into gauge temp)
- 1/2 tsp salt (I love to use garlic salt for variety, and will also add sprinkle various seasonings as well)
- 1 tsp. olive oil (or any oil)
- 2 1/3 cups – 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- Dissolved yeast in warm water in warmed bowl. (When you use the instant dry yeast that I mention in my french bread video, you can skip this step.)
- Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour.
- Attach dough hook, and mix for 1 minute.
- Continuing on low speed, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough clings to hook and cleans side of bowl. Kneed on low speed for 2 minutes.
- Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.
- Cover, let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk…about 1 hour.
- Punch down.
- Brush 14 inch pizza pan with oil; sprinkle with cornmeal
- Press dough across bottom of pan forming a collar around edge to hold filling.
- Top with desired fillings.
Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minute. This makes one small 14 inch pizza.
For a group of twenty, I literally took this recipe and multiplied it by five. In this quantity, you can still fit all the dough in a Kitchen Aid.
With ten steps, this looks very involved. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, it’s very simple. If I am pressed for time, I skip steps 5-7 and go right to putting it in the pan. If you’d like some detailed instructions in the way of a video, my “How to make French Bread” vlog are similar steps that you will use to make pizza crust.
(And since I typically make this for large groups, we thought it might be fun to duplicate how the “real chefs” toss their pizza crust into perfect shape. How in the world do they do it? I couldn’t toss if for the life of me.
Any suggestions on how to toss pizza crust dough?
I concentrated and tried with all my might, but rolling it out was my most successful course of action. 
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Tee hee! I’m not sure, but it looks like maybe your “eye wasn’t on the ball” as they say. At any rate, I have no advice since I’m a dough roller myself.
GREAT try though and will have to try your recipe for our next make your own pizza night in Bizy Mamma’s Kitchen 
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The key to tossing the dough is keeping your hands in fists and resting the dough on your knuckles. Press the dough out a little bit and then get it up onto both fists (yes, this is all very tricky still), give it a gentle rotating toss, and catch it again with your fists. You can also use your fists to just move it around in a circle to stretch it out. Using your fists keeps your fingers from poking holes or stretching the dough in weird directions. I haven’t mastered it at all yet, but it does work if you can keep moving quickly. We still get lots of giggles when we attempt it.
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I have no idea how to toss a pizza.
But, pizza for a large group is the way to go… we make out own pizza, about 6 pizzas (triple batch from Prudent Homemaker’s recipe) and have an open invitation to family and friends. They often bring over wine, toppings, whatever they have handy, and we serve up gourmet quality pizzas at around $1 each. It’s also an activity: guests take turns (we squish it onto the oiled pan, or our pizza stone) and we alternate “classic” pizza (cheese/tomato sauce) with specialties (ranch/chicken/basil, or bbq/chicken etc.) Very low stress entertaining, loads of fun.
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I don’t toss, but I do turn it over my knuckles as Gina suggests. You can get some pretty good circles that way and your fingers don’t accidentally poke any holes in the dough.
I frequently feed the neighborhood on pizza night (or so it feels).
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I haven’t even tried to toss pizza crust. I might have to get brave and try it, just for giggles. : )
I”ll have to try what the other ladies have suggested and do it over my knuckles. Rolling it out is a pain!
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